The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Kaitlin Crowder’s practice focuses on intellectual property (IP), with a primary focus on patent litigation. She assists clients with defense and with protection and enforcement of IP rights through court and administrative actions. She represents domestic and international clients in federal courts throughout the United States, before the International Trade Commission (ITC), and at in inter partes review proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
In the past two years, Kait has tried four cases for clients such as Johnson & Johnson and NXP in which she directed and cross-examined fact and expert witnesses. Kait has significant experience in all other stages of litigation in both offensive and defensive cases, including motion practice and argument for dispositive and non-dispositive motions, depositions, Markman proceedings, discovery, and strategic case development. She has played central roles in achieving case-dispositive indefiniteness rulings during Markman proceedings and has been a key contributor in other successful invalidity challenges, noninfringement defenses, and the preservation and limitation on the scope of liability and damages claims.
Kait has experience in a wide variety of technologies, including semiconductors, lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, streaming media, medical devices, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.
The views and opinions set forth herein are the personal views or opinions of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect views or opinions of the law firm with which they are associated.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
I am a senior patent litigation associate within the Jones Day IP group. I am involved in all phases of litigation, from complaint to resolution. I practice primarily in federal district court, but I also have experience in the ITC, the PTAB, and JAMS arbitration.
What types of clients do you represent?
I represent both plaintiffs and defendants. The clients I work with are typically large, multinational companies from various technological sectors. In recent years, these clients have included NXP Semiconductors, DePuy Spine (a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary), and Google.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
One of the great things about working for Jones Day is that I get to work on complex patent litigation matters that are high-stakes and often span multiple forums. My cases can range anywhere from a single-patent lawsuit in one federal district to litigation campaigns between competitors that involve dozens of patents and products across multiple federal districts and before the PTAB. For example, I recently represented NXP Semiconductors in a dispute that spanned three federal district courts, initiated dozens of PTAB proceedings, and involved additional related patent disputes in China. This dispute started with a 26-patent complaint, and by the time the case settled four and a half years and three trials later, more than 40 patents had been asserted by one party or the other.
In terms of subject matter, my practice at Jones Day involves work on a wide range of technologies, which I really enjoy. For example, my cases have involved semiconductors used for ultra-high-frequency RFID applications, the internal composition of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and the process for producing them, streaming media like YouTube, medical devices for the correction of numerous spinal conditions, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals, among other products.
How did you choose this practice area?
I have always found the idea of owning intangible property fascinating and have always enjoyed science, so there was a natural draw. I took several IP courses and really enjoyed them. As a summer associate and then again as a new lawyer, I sought out IP assignments. Both the law school courses, work assignments, and the attorneys in the Jones Day IP group cemented my interest in joining the IP group with a focus on patent law. Jones Day really invests a lot of time and resources, including training and mentorship programs, and the IP group is no exception. From the very beginning, I was able to start forming good relationships with associates and partners in the group.
What is a “typical” day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
A “typical” day depends on the stage of litigation I’m in. I often draft motions and opposition briefs at all stages of the case; during the discovery phase, I manage the day-to-day written discovery and take and defend depositions; leading up to trial, I manage pre-trial exchanges, draft witness examination outlines, and prepare witnesses for testimony. My “typical” day has, perhaps unsurprisingly, evolved over the course of my time at Jones Day. Over the past several years, I have been afforded many opportunities to develop my legal skills, including significant on-my-feet experiences such as taking depositions, making oral arguments, and directing and cross examining witnesses at trial. Not only do Jones Day lawyers take the time to mentor, the varied expertise and styles of the lawyers who I work with have also made me realize that there is not just one right way or one right style. I have been able to craft and develop my own style.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Taking at least an introductory IP course is helpful for getting the lay of the land when it comes to the major forms of IP, including patents. I would also recommend taking one or two additional IP courses, depending on where your interest lies, as well as practical courses that target advocacy skills. If you do have a technical or scientific degree, I recommend taking the patent bar, even if you are not interested in prosecuting patents. District court patent litigation is often accompanied by parallel inter partes review proceedings before the PTAB. These proceedings are often the source of early argument experience for junior attorneys but require you to be admitted. Jones Day and the IP group take great interest in helping associates develop legal skills and assisting associates to find their voice and develop confidence in their skills.
What do you like best about your practice area?
One aspect I really like about my practice area is how intellectually stimulating it is. Not only do I grapple with nuanced areas of the law, I also do deep dives into new technological areas, some of which I have prior familiarity and some of which I have no relevant background. On top of the legal and technological issues, Jones Day is also helping its clients resolve these disputes within their business frameworks, which often have overarching goals that extend beyond the present IP dispute. We therefore have to take a global view of the disputes and help clients work toward a disposition that balances the complex legal, technological, and business concerns.
Another thing I really like is the seamless, cross-office nature of most of the cases I have been staffed on. The IP group at Jones Day often leverages attorneys from several offices when staffing a litigation team, and everybody rows in the same direction toward the same goal. This has allowed me to work with, learn from, and form relationships with many of my colleagues both inside my own office and across the firm. While U.S. litigation is staffed with U.S. lawyers, if a client’s dispute has companion litigation or patent office proceedings or otherwise implicates potential legal issues in other countries, Jones Day lawyers across the world—IP or not—are quick to become part of the team, seamlessly working to handle the client’s global needs and allowing us to get the right lawyer handling the right issue.
What misconceptions exist about your practice area?
The most common misconception about patent litigation is that you have to have a science degree to be a patent litigator. That is not true. While many of us do have a technical back-ground, a trial lawyer is still a trial lawyer, and the advocacy skills are equally applicable to patent litigation. The Jones Day IP practice is primarily composed of lawyers with technical degrees, but it welcomes lawyers of all backgrounds. Some of the most talented IP lawyers who I have had the opportunity to work with do not have technical backgrounds. I often tell people that I might as well not have had a technical background as the vast majority of my cases have been rooted in technologies for which my technical undergraduate degree (chemistry) has no direct applicability. Yet, I am just as capable of understanding and litigating the issues in the case, which extend far beyond the technical minutiae.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
There is a variety of tasks that a junior patent litigation lawyer might perform. There will, of course, be document review, which includes reviewing clients’ documents for relevance, confidentiality, and privilege before producing them to the other side and then reviewing the incoming production to identify relevant evidence. It may also include supervising other document reviewers if the client chooses to contract out the document review for cost-saving purposes. Junior attorneys often take the first pass at drafting responses and objections to discovery requests. You can expect to do a lot of legal research both to inform case strategy and to support arguments to be briefed. You may do first drafts of pleadings and briefs. And you will assist with identifying key documents to use to depose the other side’s witnesses as well as prepare sets of documents to use to prepare your own witnesses for deposition.
What advice do you have for lawyers without technical or science backgrounds who want to practice in IP?
My advice would be to try to just forget about the fact that your undergraduate background is not in a technical or scientific field. As I mentioned above, the need for a technical background to do patent litigation is a total misconception. True, in some particularly complex technology spaces, having a related technical background is helpful. In my experience, that includes pharmaceuticals and electrical engineering spaces. But for many, they will be starting from the same position as the other associates on the team with technical backgrounds or not. Everybody will have the same learning curve on the particular patents and technology at issue. And even on cases where having a related technical background is a real leg up, there are still crucial roles to be played that do not require you to be so in the weeds on the technical aspects.